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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23609839">garage practice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>persona 5 punk band au [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Bisexual Sakamoto Ryuji, Gen, M/M, Sakamoto Ryuji has a tongue piercing, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, and ann is not impressed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:21:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>978</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23609839</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>the original phantom thieves think about how the band's members found each other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist &amp; Sakamoto Ryuji &amp; Takamaki Ann</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>persona 5 punk band au [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697143</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>garage practice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Akira first met Ryuji in his third year at Shujin. He joined in his third year after being kicked out of his old school for many reasons: </p>
<ol>
<li>He had a bad habit of getting caught smoking on the roof.</li>
<li>He did not try to attend class properly.</li>
<li>Arson. </li>
<li>Ok, maybe not arson, but he could pull some pretty good lighter tricks.</li>
</ol>
<p>He moved into his own apartment, paid the rent with the money he had earned in his three separate part-time jobs, and quietly moved back into the daily grind of barely showing up. Shujin had a stricter policy than his last school, enforcing a nasty uniform and a good learning attitude. Akira bent the rules however he could, sneaking in piercings, and small changes to his clothes that couldn't <em>technically </em>get him in trouble. Akira would hang out in the music practice rooms with his guitar and pretend to be working, mostly noodling around with songs he had heard before. He heard the drums before he saw the guy. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ryuji was hammering out something that sounded really angry, so Akira fished around in his bag for the AUX cable to his amp. He waited for the perfect time to play a riff he improvised on the spot to the beat in the room next to his. The drums faltered at the sound of his guitar, but they kept playing with Akira for a good three minutes. They stopped, and the sound of footsteps in the corridor got louder until the door swung open. Ryuji was slightly shorter than Akira, wearing a graphic t-shirt instead of the shitty turtleneck that the school was so fond of. His ratty converse sneakers literally kicked the door open. </p>
<p>"Dude. That was so fucking sick." He grinned, "Sakamoto Ryuji. You're the newbie?" He offered Akira a handshake, to which Akira complied. He nodded, then nodded to the room next to them. </p>
<p>"I'm Kurusu Akira. You're really good. Do you play with anyone?" He asked, unplugging his guitar. Ryuji had shrugged, placing his hands in his pockets. </p>
<p>"Nope. It's just something I'd do for fun." </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Akira had smiled, put his guitar in its case and placed a friendly hand on Ryuji's shoulder as he left the room. Ryuji argues that he left first, but he knows that Akira left before him to create intrigue. They met up together, in the practice rooms to fumble around with their instruments and practice, but they didn't expect their first interactions to create something that would shape rock music for Japan in no less than two years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ann had heard them practicing, and now she says they sounded incomplete, but at the time, she was enamored with the sound they had. Akira couldn't play guitar and sing at the same time, not yet at least, so Ann offered to play the chords. She twisted them into something only she could create. Her way of playing so fiery and bright that Akira and Ryuji had to do <em>something</em>. </p>
<p>That something was The Phantom Thieves of Justice. In the summer, Ann would open the garage her parents had left her the keys to and they would play things they had no idea would form their first EP. They wrote <em>King of the Castl</em><em>e</em>after the track team treated Ryuji like shit. The accidental duet Akira and Ryuji did then turned into a song that hit the top ten in Tokyo for a week, <em>Take Your Heart.</em> The famous opening solo that signaled the beginning of the song that allegedly made them famous was Ann's idea, which grew into <em>Asmodeus</em>, the all-time favorite. in the Ryuji says that Ann's playing really kicked the band into motion, but Ann thinks it was Akira's voice that held it all together. </p>
<p>Akira knows it's all of them. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ryuji doesn't usually bring up his <em>friendship</em> with Akira in interviews, so he keeps the fact they kissed once to himself. They did more than that. When they were signed to Sakura Records, Akira and Ryuji were still a thing, but they don't talk about it now. Ryuji wishes they would. Akira doesn't want to make things awkward. Ann doesn't know and neither of them wants to tell her. </p>
<p>Back in high school, Ryuji wasn't sure how being attracted to Akira worked. He was pale, his hair was always messy, and he was a bit lanky. The drummer had always been toned and tanned, and he wasn't as <em>pretty</em> as Akira. The black-haired boy had this way of moving beautifully, like fire dancing along the gasoline trail from a getaway car. But Akira lets himself remember the way he and Ryuji were close. When Ryuji first got his tongue piercing, Akira was the first to find out. As it healed, he got to find out more and more. He knows how Ryuji feels about his current conquest, so he doesn't salt the wound. They're still close, best friends, even. Ann <em>definitely</em> does not want to know. She likes to think that the time she walked in on them after their first gig in Shibuya was all a cheap beer-induced dream. She wouldn't ever look at that shiny bar in Ryuji's tongue the same. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fans like to speculate things, as they learned the hard way, but the original Phantom Thieves have not left any clues about their romantic relationships within the band. They learned that fame leads to scrutiny, and scrutiny leads to your comfort zone being crushed like a bug beneath Ann's shiny leather platforms. They let it go and they show no weakness under the heavy gaze of spotlights and cameras. When they play, everything melts away. It's only them on the stage, making music that reverberates down to the soles of their shoes. They're all cogs in an effortlessly oiled machine.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They're the Original Phantom Thieves, and they're here to take your heart.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i don't care what you think, ryuji has my heart</p></blockquote></div></div>
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